Today we attended a dinner party at Randy’s coworker, Carol’s apartment in Hyde Park. They don’t make them like this anymore. The apartment had arched doorways and hardwood floors laid in an intricate pattern. A feast for the eyes to preceed the feast of homemade, cooked-all-day Indian food. The saag itself was to die for, and we scored the recipe. I hope we can do it justice!

Randy and I are easily bored by chain restaurants and “american” food, so we try to seek out new restaurant experiences when we can. That lead us to Riverside Korean restaurant in Covington. Randy has dabbled in Korean food but I was a complete novice, so we figured we could sample some new and exciting tastes.

The restaurant was adorable and tiny – it had maybe 15 tables – some with traditional floor seating complete with little cubbies to stow your shoes.

Our waiter told us that Bibimbab (funniest-named food I’ve eaten this year) is their most popular dish, so we got an order to share, along with a mixed vegetable pancake as an appetizer. The pancake was good and the dipping sauce was even better. We were hopeful about our main dish. The mixture of rice, chicken and vegetables arrived at our table in a large cast-iron bowl, still sizzling, with a sunny-side-up egg sitting on top, which the waiter mixed in for us. We dug in. And it tasted like…..your grandma’s basement. That was the only way I could describe it – and strangely enough, Randy agreed. He was stronger than I and lasted for several bites, while I was only able to manage about three. We took our leftovers because sometimes that’s just easier than saying no to the waiter, but threw it out once we got to our next destination (a bakery to get some cheesecake since I was still hungry), because it made our car smell like….your grandma’s basement. We aren’t sure what is responsible for the smell and we can’t describe it much more than saying it had a strong preservative-like taste, an essence of something which is not meant to be eaten. Mothballs, maybe? We haven’t completely given up on Korean food – Randy promises that Korean barbecue can be quite delectable. But it will probably be a while before we dive back into that particular pond. We’re thinking of trying out a local Ethiopian restaurant next. I hope there aren’t any basements there…

Randy and I met for lunch in the Carew Tower, where he works, at Hathaway’s – a very old diner complete with waitresses who seem to be stuck in time. The atmosphere was very sweet and nostalgic, which is good, because the food was nothing to write home about. We’ll have to try breakfast sometime, which I hear is their forte.